Fitness, Kids, Recipes and Life

caramel

It’s National Ice Cream Day!! I honestly don’t think there needs to be anything more said. Ice cream is like the f-bomb of the food world. When you win the big game, what do you do? You go get an ice cream. When you break up with your significant other, what do you do? You sit in front of a sappy movie and eat ice cream. You eat it straight, in a sundae, in a milkshake or over pie. My favorite? Vanilla ice cream over a warm chocolate chip cookie. Yummm I love parties that have a sundae bar! So much fun!!

Caramel corn milkshake. OMG..Food Network. You are truly evil! This recipe from them is heavenly. I made it a few weeks ago for Ms. Autumn’s sleep over. The girls LOVED it. The recipe is for 2 servings. But I used small mason jars and got 4 servings out of it.

Only ten days left! Who’s ready for the Big Guy? This girl! That’s who! Well, not really. I’m waiting for 2 gifts to come in and need a couple of gift cards and then I’M DONE! Autumn and I don’t get overly crazy with gifts. When she believed in Santa, Santa only brought one gift. He was generous, with a little bit of a bigger gift (a bike one year, a Wii another). Mommy gave her any other presents that were under the tree. As a single mom, I worked hard for what I gave her; and I wasn’t about to let the fictional gentleman, as jolly as he is, get all the credit! We tend to focus on family oriented things, traditions that will make memories. The spirit of Christmas, as they say. Not something that will break within a 2 month time frame. Like last year’s tablet, for example.

The “Christmas spirit” with the older two is a little bit more difficult. They don’t really care about much, unless it’s on a gadget. I try, but with little success. So with Ms. Autumn, I’m trying to get her understand the importance of the holiday season early, so when she’s 16, she will be all about the giving and not about the receiving.

Giving! Let’s focus on this. I came across this recipe on Facebook I think. From Taste of Home, these little squares of heaven are definitely for the giving. They are a little bit time consuming. But totally worth it! Don’t be fooled. You will eat your fair share before carefully packaging them up for the neighbor! These are pretty sweet, so give them to the neighbor without diabetes. Unless you don’t like your neighbor with diabetes. Bad plan. Just eat them.

Creamy Caramels

1 tsp plus 1 Cup Butter, divided

1 C Sugar

1 C Dark corn syrup

1-14 oz Can Sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Line an 8″ square pan with foil; grease the foil with 1 teaspoon butter and set aside.

In a large heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and remaining butter; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil slowly for 4 minutes without stirring.

Remove from the heat; stir in milk. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until a candy thermometer reads 238° (soft-ball stage), stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.